Games

I used to be a pretty avid PC gamer, from the times that games shipped on 360k and 720k disks until around 1998, when this whole “university” thing started. (Yeah, I stopped playing games when I started attending university: how bizarre am I?) These days I still play some games, but since I don’t have that much time anymore, I tend to be pretty selective about them. I mostly tend toward RPGs now, though I still need a RTS and FPS fix from time to time. (The current RTS du jour for me is C&C Zero Hour, and Counter-Strike and Unreal Tournament 2005 remind me of how far I’ve fallen from being a Doom king ;-).

Best PC Games Evar

Since everyone has a shortlist, here’s mine in no particular order:

System Shock (Through The Looking Glass)

System Shock 2 (Irrational Games)

Ultima Underworld (Through the Looking Glass, who later forked off into Irrational)

Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (Firaxis Games)

Starflight (Electronic Arts, back when they didn’t suck)

Starflight II (Electronic Arts)

Planescape: Torment (Black Isle Productions). PS:T deserves a special award as one of the most text-heavy games in existence, with a story, plot, and moral and ethical stance that made you know yourself better.

Fallout 2 (Black Isle Productions)

Doom 2! (id Software)

Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (Obsidian, half of whom are from Black Isle). Nearly as soul-challenging as PS:T.

Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Dune II (Westwood Studios), the first real-time strategy games that created such an excellent era. Die all you Blizzard-loving Warcraft II copybag scums!

Space Quest III (Sierra On-Line), the coolest Sierra game you could finish within 30 minutes!

Powerslide (Ratbag Games) — only because I wrote some music for it ;-).

A special award for Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour (EA Los Angeles), the most hilarious and politically incorrect real-time strategy game today.

Wipeout 2097 (Psygnosis): The epitome of futuristic racing games. My verdict’s still out on Wipeout Pure.

Dark Castle (Silicon Beach Software) and The Fool’s Errand (Cliff Johnson) on the Macintosh. (Crystal Quest nearly counts, but I was crap at it, so it doesn’t make the shortlist).

From time to time I find some games that are quite hackable. I hacked Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, Alpha Centauri, and Neverwinter Nights I and II to bits, although most of the mods I made have been lost in the mists of time. Neverwinter Nights 2, however, is fresh off the shelf…